What to do with a teenager on Halloween?

So it is official, my kids are no longer Trick or Treaters on Halloween. My son has not Trick or Treated for several years but this year my daughter is not going either. Sigh.. another milestone! It seems like just yesterday , they were little kids!

So what can you do with a teenager on Halloween? Well my son thinks he might go to a Halloween party. My daughter is having a Halloween party at our house. She is having over some friends for games and a movie.

Teenagers still want to have fun on Halloween but realize that they are too old to Trick or Treat. So here are some ideas for your teenager on Halloween:

1. Murder Mystery party ~ My daughter is having a murder mystery game at her Halloween party. Easy to do and fun for the kids to try to figure out.

2. Watch a scary or not so scary Halloween flick. This can be done with friends or you can make it a family event. Some movies to consider are Ghostbusters, Psycho, The Birds, Nightmare Before Christmas, or Young Frankenstein. Of course, you can find scarier movies but my teens don;'t like really scary movies.

3. Hand out candy the teenager way! This is great for teenage kids. Have your teen dress up as a scarecrow/stuffed dummy. Put some straw sticking out of sleeves and pants. They need to wear a mask. They sit slouched in a chair like they are stuffed dummy. The whole idea is to convince kids that it is just a dummy and not a real person. Put the bowl of candy on the dummies lap (your teen). Then tell the Trick or Treaters that they can take a piece of candy from the bowl. When the kid takes a piece, the dummy grabs at them.

This is really a fun gag. Your teen will love it. Of course, we never scare the really little kids. We had a neighbor who would dress up as a Gorilla. Then he would just stand by the sidewalk and not move. People would think he was a statue so when he did move he scared everyone.

4. Make your garage into a haunted house. You can hang some large dark colored sheets in your garage. Try to make it a walk through with sheets for walls. Your teens can come up with ideas for the scary rooms. They can get friends to help. Also some teens can jump out and scare the kids. I am sure that your teen could come up with some great ideas for this!

Teenagers can have fun on Halloween too! My teens are excited about their Halloween plans.